November 2005 Issue

No matter what the outcome of the Student Unions upcoming Fair Trade Coffee referendum, we applaud all parties involved for letting the democratic process at Brandeis do its work. We are lucky to have a mechanism in place that allows the student body to state their opinion about the campus conversion to Fair Trade coffee.

Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) came to Brandeis on Monday to speak on issues of gay rights.

In a brief interview granted to The Hoot prior to the talk, Frank described the depths of homophobia that still infect the discourse of American life. Despite this, he is encouraged by the monumental progress that has been made in recent years.

Stop it. No seriously, stop it! Your complaining offends us! You should be ashamed for having those views! Just by saying that, you have undermined our sense of security on this campus. How dare you have opinions different than ours!?

November once again comes to a close. We say goodbye to it with puffy eyes and a tear dripping down our noses, because by this point in the year it is way too cold not to suffer from constant outpourings of perpetual nose-drool as I do. I dont know about you, but I for one can quench the thirst of several small nation-states such as Monaco and Djibouti with the volume of nose-drool my glands synthesize every day.

Ill admitIve never had a 3-hour essay exam. Nor have I had to write a 25-page research paper, or done 300 pages of reading in one night. None of these sound like a good time. But lets look at the reality of the situation. How long did you have to do that research paper? A month, maybe 2 weeks if youre really being pushed. In the sciences, weekly problem sets and weekly lab reports are expected. The average science student churns out 20-25 pages in labs and homework problems on a weekly basis. As for exams, its one thing to write for 3 hours straight. Its something quite different to stare at 3 problems for 3 hours straight, with no idea how to do them. The average humanities student would probably not be able to pass, much less excel in an upper level science class.

Its a sad day for college students across North America. I2hub, the popular college music and movie network, has been shut down. I2hub provided its users with a free service that featured incredibly fast transfers.

Wide receiver Troy Brown once again played on both sides of the ball (both wide receiver and cornerback) on Sunday as the depleted New England Patriots managed yet another last minute victory as they defeated the Miami Dolphins 23-16. The Patriots, who were without running back Corey Dillon, still managed a decently balanced offense with the help of ex-Seattle Seahawk Heath Evans, who ran for 84 yards, which was more than he gained in his last two seasons in Seattle alone. Despite the victory, the Patriots secondary was still a little fragile, with Miami Quarterback Gus Frerotte throwing for 360 yards and two touchdowns. The Pats also lost two more players to injury: Center Dan Koppen and Cornerback Randall Gay. The Patriots finished the first half of the season after having played the toughest first half of any team in the league, and look forward to a much easier second half schedule.

The NBA season is now several weeks old but it is never too soon to analyze how the season is going. Some teams are unexpectedly floundering while others are surprisingly dominant. And the Detroit Pistons are undefeated heading into Wednesday.

Fair Trade coffee is bad for free trade. Fair Trade is several things, first of which is an attempt by outside groups to place a price floor on coffee. Price floors keep more farmers in the business of coffee, on the hope that they will sell to a Fair Trade importer, perhaps impoverishing them more from staying in the coffee business when they should not. But what happens is that too much coffee bean is made with this attempted price floor, and big corporations win more by cheapened non-Fair Trade certified coffee.

I am a Brandeis student, first and foremost. Like most of my fellow classmates, I enjoy political freedoms to do and say what I want without fear. One of the greatest freedoms we have is the freedom of choice. We can choose what car we drive (assuming that we want to drive one), clothes we wear (assuming we want to wear a set), what college we attend (assuming that we want to go to college and the college we want to attend accepts us), and we can choose which coffee we want to drink (assuming we drink coffee). I personally choose not to drink coffee and I dont look down on those who do.